Sunday, March 28, 2010

To show an example for you I filled the pages for Finland and Finnish. And while I did it I found out a new Youtube video for Moomins: I love Moomins and have created some Moomin projects with my kids last summer - but haven´t had time to take photos yet. Some day, some day...

After the last blog post I created 2 new templates, one for countries and one for nationalities. This will help us in filling the pages as now all of them look very different to each other. So from now on on country pages we will put this kind of information:

Country x is situated in ... The dollhouse hobby there is started about ... There are associations there... The number of miniaturists is about ... There are yearly shows and fairs in ... ... The most known dollhouse projects there are... The most famous trademark related to dollhouses/dolls/miniaturists are... ... ...

CalendarYou can add here the coming events (the old ones are removed from the list)

Clubs/Groups/associationsYou can add here the most know associations and their contact details

HistoryShort history of the dollhouse hobby. What are the most popular scales, when did it start and what are the most known dollhouse projects in this country.

FAQ by the people living in this countryAs a newbie miniaturists, what should I know?Where to find the materials I need?

FAQ by the foreignersWhere can I find miniatures in an average town in this country?What are the craft shops called or are there other places to try out?What should I buy as a souvenirs?When a friend of mine is going to this country, what should I ask her to bring me?

And for nationalities the information is like this:

This country is known for ... ... ... ... The most known foods are ... ... ... The most important seasonal parties are .... ...

Links to miniature projects

Instructions for miniatures

Miniature printablesWallpapers

Videos

Groups concentrating to this country´s projects, the forums from this country are found from forums_language

Blogs concentrating to this country´s projects, the blogs from this country are found in blogs_nationality

Miniatures on sale

Books that tell about the projects of this country

I hope this makes sense to you. Now start filling the information to countries you are familiar with and if some of your favorite countries is missing from the list, create it or ask me to do it by commenting this blog post or by adding a request to this page.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Someone may have wondered what on earth I did today - spamming the ones who order feeds by editing dozens of pages. I was adding Google Analytics codes - they need to be in every page and I have not find a way to include it in the side layout. The reason I want to get stats out of the wiki is of course the better I know the way you use it the better I can customize it for you.

So let´s check the statistics together again...

The growth from the previous month is 15.8% - not bad at all :). On average day we get 80 visitors who check 3 pages at the time. During the month we got 1617 unique visitors.

This week we got the 100th fan to our Facebook page - now we have 104 :). To celebrate the occasion I interviewed Doreen - here we go.

Hi Doreen - How does it feel to be the 100th Facebook fan of Mini treasures wiki? It feels great to be number 100 as it feels like I am part of a milestone. I am sure this number is going to grow.

Tell a little about yourself: who you are, where do you come from and what do you do? I am retired and live in a small resort town just south of Georgian Bay in Ontario, Canada. I originally came from Toronto, Ontario but we do not like city living and prefer much quieter living.

Do you have any hobbies other than miniatures? The only other hobbies I have other than miniatures is reading and observing nature. We live on the river and love to watch the wildlife.

When and how did you start doing miniatures? I started miniatures about five years ago when my husband bought me my very first dollhouse for Christmas. Since I am retired, I can no longer afford to buy furniture and all the little things for the house so I have learned how to make them myself. I especially love Trash to Treasure projects as it gives me great satisfaction to make something from nothing. I also like to use dolls to create scenes with and to give life to the rooms.

What is your latest / next mini-project? I just finished my dollhouse today. It has taken me a long time because I do each room separtely like a roombox and I like to add a lot of detail to each room. I also change the house according to the season. I have done some projects inbetween like a burger stand and an ice-cream parlour.

How did you find Mini Treasures wiki and what is your favorite page in the wiki? What would you like to see in the wiki in the future? I do not know what I would like to see in the wiki in the future because I am still exploring it in the present.

Johanna found me and asked me to join. I was very pleased as I am an amateur and I need all the help I can get to create the miniatures that I love. So of course my favorite page is the DIY!

Monday, March 22, 2010

The dollhouse books (and other related books) are now listed in one page :). They used to be on one page in the beginning but then they grew too big and I needed to divide them to separate pages and were not too happy about it. Now that we have the premium version in use we have more room and we can have one long page again (I hope).

So if your favorite dollhouse miniature, doll or diorama book is missing from the list, go and add it. And if you´d like to describe your books (recommend or warn) do so, let´s build together the best dollhouse book database. :)

Saturday, March 20, 2010

I have tried to add the RSS feed from @minitreasures Twitter tweets to PBworks (minitreasures.pbworks.com) with no luck so far. I need to find e.g. a Google gadget that is showing feeds. Can someone help?

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It was good that I asked - after asking I realized I am using the gadget already here (blog). I added it to the wiki and it is working - thsnks for support :)

Time goes fast - Mini treasures wiki will be one year old on 14th April and I want to celebrate the occasion with you. I invited the fans from Facebook and Twitter followers to take part and now I am inviting you too (microblogging comes before blogging as it takes less time to do but I am not forgetting you). Now tell me how we can arrange a virtual party. :)

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Not all of you have an account in Flickr so I decided to take the biggest photo service in use. And that is Facebook. I added an album for Mini treasures but I am not sure if anyone can add photos or just moderators. Somebody please test and inform me. If you can add photos there, add also Easter photos.

PS. I have not been active in other photo sites lately. Are there groups or pools like in Flickr in them? We can have Mini treasures wiki pictures in other services too if they support groups and tags and embedding. Let me know will you :).

Mini treasures links

Mini treasures wiki

Mini treasures

The world of Mini treasures consists of many places in social media but the most important of alll Mini treasures wiki. This blog tells news from the wiki and the mini world around it. The blog is hosted by Johanna Janhonen from Finland and she has one dream: to have a bigger blogger group filling this blog. So contact Johanna if you would like to blog about Mini treasures wiki, interview our readers or start arranging new campaigns for Mini treasures.